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LIFTED: After a traumatic injury on the football field in 2005, Glisson rebuilding his life in the weight room

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Michael Cohen spots Taylor Glisson as he pushes to complete a bench press during a work out at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Taylor Glisson, a former Johnson High football player, takes a break between lifts at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center. Glisson collapsed during football practice in 2005 and was in a coma due to a head injury.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Taylor Glisson, a former Johnson High football player, celebrates a bench press of over 300 pounds during a work out at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center. Glisson has battled memory loss since collapsing from a head injury during football practice in 2005.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Taylor Glisson, a former Johnson High football player, changes weight on the bar during a work out at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center. Glisson collapsed during football practice in 2005 due to a head injury and has struggled with his memory since.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Michael Cohen spots Taylor Glisson during a work out at the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center.

Appearances can be deceiving. Weightlifter Taylor Glisson, 24, likes to boast that you probably wouldn’t suspect by looking at him that he suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2005, his senior football season at Johnson High School.

The injuries — one subdural hematoma, the most common type of traumatic intracranial mass lesion, and two strokes — caused him to lose nearly all his short-term memory.

Glisson was a senior linebacker at Johnson High School when the Atomsmashers played Groves on Sept. 2, 2005. The play was ordinary. The aftermath was anything but typical.

Johnson offensive coordinator William Conyers recalled it recently as a “routine play.” The guard was coming to block Glisson, “and they just made contact.

“I think he played one additional play,” Conyers said, “then he came to the sideline and we didn’t put him back in, I don’t think, the rest of the night. The rest is pretty much history. It’s one of those things where you’re not expecting anything to go wrong, and it did.”

Twelve days later, Glisson collapsed on the practice field.

“It’s been a difficult road,” said his mother Debbie Glisson. “We saw dozens of doctors and specialists. Finding programs to help for his situation — you don’t know what is not out there until you need it.

“Even Goodwill, who had a program for brain injuries, and doctors who deal with people with brain traumas and different type of brain issues, don’t really know what is available and to what extent because there’s so many different levels of mental health disabilities. ... One of the big frustrations was just trying to find some help so he could progress and get back to as normal as possible.”

Debbie Glisson said her son remembers things he could do before that night and can’t do now because of the injury. She said that is the really big struggle.

In 2006, Taylor Glisson struggled to survive.

Initial prognosis

Savannah neurosurgeon Cliff L. Cannon Jr., performed the surgery to open up Glisson’s skull to relieve the pressure.

Debbie Glisson said her son’s prognosis was grim.

“We were basically told he probably wasn’t going to make it,” she said. “He was very, very critical. If he made it, the indications were that he could be severely disabled. To what level of function he could have, they didn’t know. They thought it would very little.

“He saw many, many different doctors that expressed those kinds of things.”

Taylor Glisson, in a coma, saw some unpredictable things.

Coma experiences

Glisson said he witnessed hell, and then God and Jesus Christ sitting in heaven as he stood at the gates.

“Can you kill me?” Glisson asked. “This is awesome. Heaven is bliss. It sucks to be dead (at) 17 years old.”

But, Glisson said, God replied: “I want you to live again.”

Glisson said God snapped his fingers and he woke up.

He said he spent 27 days in that coma and lost “a tremendous amount of weight.” Glisson said he lost 45 pounds of muscle.

He gained, however, during this experience because he said he’s accepted Jesus Christ as his lord and savior.

The road to recovery was set to begin.

Rehabilitation

Debbie Glisson said once her son awoke from his coma, he came around fairly quickly. He spent several weeks at the Rehabilitation Institute at Memorial University Medical Center as an inpatient. His mother said Taylor did well relearning how to walk and eat. Physically, he progressed consistently.

Mentally, the road to relearning how to read, comprehend, speak and those kinds of things was one traveled at a slower pace. However, once Taylor began attending outpatient therapy — he spent about a month there — he did more speech and occupational therapy than physical therapy.

Taylor was on his way to Atlanta 8 1/2 months later.

Restore Health Group is a residential, post-acute health care organization based in Georgia’s capital city. Glisson credited its work for helping him rehab academically.

“I’m thankful for God that he gave me the chance to go there,” he said. “It was a program that helped people that had traumatic brain injuries. They helped me tremendously, helped me get my English, math, science, history and geography back to where it used to be.”

He admitted some words still give him difficulty.

He spent around four months in Atlanta, his mother said.

“(Taylor) really progressed a lot,” she said.

Upon Taylor’s return to Savannah in March 2009, his father, Ted Glisson, approached Michael Cohen, executive director of the Team Savannah weightlifting squad, to help Taylor progress physically. Cohen has been around weightlifting all of his life. Now he had an opportunity to help rebuild a life.

A place to lift

Cohen, based out of the Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center, said that Taylor’s injuries precluded opportunities.

“With a brain injury like that, nobody’s going to let him work out in a facility,” Cohen said. “You can forget that. The places you have in Savannah are not designed for people who have physical problems.”

Cohen is also the strength and conditioning coach at Savannah State University and a three-time Olympian as a lifter and coach. On the first day, Glisson and Cohen had a heated argument about who was in charge of Glisson’s regimen. Glisson wanted to do what he chose.

“I told his caretaker, ‘Take him home,’ ” Cohen said. “‘I am the head coach. I am the one in charge.’ They left. He was very upset.”

A couple of days later, Ted came in and asked for a second chance for his son.

“No problem,” Cohen said. “I’m in charge.”

The issue resolved, Glisson has been training at the center and gaining strength.

“From that day, probably three years ago, it’s been a great relationship,” Cohen said.

“Mentally and physically, it’s been a positive thing for him,” she said. “I am thankful for the program here and that he will be able to continue to come here.”

Taylor is not training for any specific event. He loves weightlifting because it reminds him of playing football, Cohen said.

Glisson acknowledged how much progress he’s made.

“It’s amazing how strange it is for me to be able to move around and walk around,” he said. “When I woke up (from my coma), I couldn’t feel ice cubes or fire.”

Cohen provides a place where Glisson can feel at home.

The center is a place where Glisson can socialize as well as train, Cohen said.

“He knows everybody in the gym, and everybody knows Taylor.”

Added Glisson, “I socialize with anybody.”

Making progress

Cohen recalled the first day Glisson bench-pressed 225 pounds. Once.

“He was so proud,” Cohen said. “(But) I’m more interested in the repetitions, because that’s the way he wants to train — like the other football players. His training is pretty much a mirror of some of the Savannah State football players I work with.”

His personal best is 15 now reps.

“The improvement is dramatic,” Cohen added. “It’s the most amazing thing you could possibly imagine — the improvement that he’s made in his life. He’s gained about 25-30 pounds of body weight.”

Though she said her son will continue to struggle for the rest of his life, Debbie Glisson is thankful Taylor has come this far.

“It’s a blessing that he’s able to do what he can do,” she said. “It’s a miracle. God has put people there when we’ve needed them. The expectations were not there for him to be where he is now.”

Though her son’s life will never be the same as before the injury, Glisson said her son has become more social and outgoing.

Cohen said watching Glisson’s growth has been inspiring.

“When you have an opportunity to work with someone who has gone through that type of life-changing episode ... He’s extroverted beyond belief. He’s the most external person I’ve seen in my life.

“He’s self-motivated. What he needs is that guidance. I’m there to help him move forward. He doesn’t know everything. I know a lot more about this than he does.

“What he learned in football is long gone. He now needs a different direction. To watch someone go through that, develop and keep pushing is very impressive — even his doctors will tell you, it’s absolutely amazing how far he’s come.”

Taylor credited his faith for helping him grow stronger.

“It has helped me tremendously,” he said. “It’s by God’s grace that I can. I am a 100 percent believer. I was about a 50, 75 percent believer before my brain injury. After I saw them, I’m a 100 percent believer.”